The second day of the Bushcraft weekend was the shelter building course. This event had a lot of interest from the public so much so that we have a waiting list so we are going to organize another course possibly in July For those who didn't get to this one.
The course had booked 19 people for the day but we had a few no shows and ended up with 12. They were a very enthusiastic bunch and their shelters were most impressive as im sure you will agree from the pictures!
If you recognize yourself from the photos email us and i will get a copy sent off to you.
We started off with quick intro. and explanation about wilderness shelters and discussed the 2 different shelters we would be building. The group were then split into 2 groups and off they went.
The Classic Lean - to Shelter
A cross bar was erected between 2 trees and then long poles were collected. These were placed against the cross bar at an angle of roughly 60 degrees.
Finer branches and twigs were then placed on the poles to form a criss - cross matting this would help prevent the loose thatching material from falling through.
Then it was time to start thatching! Due to the limited resources in the park those of you with a keen eye will see that there isn't an arms depth of thatching on the shelter, this was also discussed at the time.
After the hard work is over its time for a quick pose before tea and biccies!
The 2 Person Litter Leaf Shelter
We started off by measuring out and constructing a frame work of 2 long poles and 1 short pole to be used for the upright, taking into consideration the size of the occupants.
We then added numerous small sticks leant against the frame to construct the skeletal walls of the shelter.
Then it was time for the branches of fine twigs which made up the criss- cross matting which would contain the litter leaf and thatching material.
Inside looking out and outside looking in, the big thumbs up and its time to progress to the next stage.
Time for the thatching, even the little ones got involved though the big ones looked like they had more fun!
Time to see how many we can get in to a 2 person shelter, thats 2, 4, and at a squeeze 6 !
Time for tea biscuits and an informal chat to end the course, everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves and a lot of hard work was put in on the day!
A Big thank you from the NIBA to all those who came along and made the day such a great success!!
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